A band of wind and percussion players
who perform outdoor ritual music, predominantly at funerals and temple
festivities. It emanates a muscular self-confidence that perfectly matches
its outdoor setting.

gongche

Similar to the Western do-re-mi
system: Each symbol records a tone's position in the scale (that is, its
relative pitch, not its absolute pitch), and the main overall function of the
notation is written in columns, starting on the right-hand side.

guoyue

"national music" a style
like so many in the twentieth century world that drew on aspects of Western
means while attempting to preserve and develop national musical content as an
alternative to Western music.

jianzipu

Written score, literally translated,
"abbreviated character notation"

jingju

Beijing opera

qingyi

A serious heroine, a good actresses
are reputed not only for their vocal powers but also for their evocative use
of stance and gesture, which an audio recording obviously cannot capture.

sanxian

Three-stringed, long-necked lute

shan'ge

Outdoor songs for agricultural work,
flirting and courting

xiao

bamboo end-blown vertical flute

zheng (also guzheng)

a bridged zither with usually
twenty-five strings

absolute pitch

This means that we can today relate
the ancient names of notes with their actual pitch levels

ancestor worship

This form of worship involves rites
of pay respect to natural and supernatural forces and to one's forefathers.

Buddhism

Came from India to China in the first
millennium C.E. This doctrine held that human beings were inherently
imperfect but, through religious practice, could embark on a journey of
gradual self-improvement through multiple incarnations toward a purified
future.

Confucianism

Emerged from the writings of Kong
Fuzi (literally Lord Kong, c. 550-479 B.C.E.), argued that good governance
required a fixed social hierarchy in which loyalty flowed upward from wife to
husband, son to father, common man to ruler, and ruler to heaven. Social
responsibility then passed downward, with each individual obliged to care for
those on the next stratum below. Confucius saw human nature as basically good
but easily corrupted by poor leadership.

Daoism (also Taoism)

This is the idea of yin and yang,
literally the female and male principles, sometimes symbolized. For our
purposes here, the idea is that any entity comprises not only a principal
object but, at the same time, its complementary opposite. The new is not just
new, but a reaction to the old, which was itself once new in turn.

Jiangnan sizhu

Its name means the silk and bamboo
music of the Jiangnan region, in East China around the lower reaches of the
Changjiang (Yangtze River). The phrase silk and bamboo refers to the
two major categories of instruments used in this music, silk-stringed
instruments and bamboo-tubed wind instruments.

onomatopoeic syllables

Syllables that sound like the sounds
they represent

relative pitch

This means that we can understand how
the names of notes fit together into a tonal system

strophic

A song format used for many kinds of
counting and listening songs, each verse introducing the next item in a
series.

Suzhou tanci

Suzhou ballad-singing

tone language

The pitch (high, low, rising, falling,
etc.) at which a symbol is pronounced is as important in determining its
meaning as its combination of other components (duration, stress, and the
sounds equivalent to consonants and vowels).

yin and yang

Literally the female and male
principles, sometimes symbolized. For our purposes here, the idea is that any
entity comprises not only a principal object but, at the same time, its
complementary opposite. The new is not just new, but a reaction to the old,
which was itself once new in turn.